


taking the long way home

by cherryraindrops



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fake AH Crew, M/M, Soulmates AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 00:26:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16006454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryraindrops/pseuds/cherryraindrops
Summary: Ryan receives his soulmate tattoo when he's sixteen, when he believes in soulmates and the beauty that comes with the one person you are meant to be with.Unfortunately, the universe has other plans.





	taking the long way home

Ryan is sixteen years old when the tattoo first appears. He’s sitting in his English class, ignoring his teacher’s lecture on _Hamlet_ in favor of doodling in the margins of his paper when a burning sensation begins on his wrist, making him drop his pen. His classmates stare at him in utter confusion as he grips his wrist and tries not to scream because _holy hell_ it hurts like a bitch. His teacher eventually approaches him, asking if he needs the school nurse, but gasps when she notices the tattoo on his wrist.

Most soulmates tattoos are pretty, representing innocent things such as flowers or even tiny little music notes. They were meant to represent love, or even a shared interest between you and the one you were meant to be with.

Ryan’s tattoo was a skull.

Soulmates had always been fascinating to Ryan. The fact that the universe worked in such a way that they would leave you something to find your soulmate with was incredible in his eyes, even if such a thing didn’t end up working with his parents. The world had its faults, and sometimes soulmates weren’t perfect for each other in the end. Ryan believed he could be the exception.

His friends don’t exactly share the sentiment. Since the moment Ryan gained his tattoo, his group of friends took it upon themselves to express their complete disinterest in ever finding the one person they were meant to be with forever, claiming that the universe had no control over who they wanted to be with. Ryan ignored them; it wasn’t as if they had received their tattoos yet anyway.

Sometimes Ryan would lie awake at night and simply stare at the skull, and wonders what it could mean for him and his soulmate. Would they meet as one of them is dying? Was it possible one of them would save the other from death? Was his soulmate just weirdly fascinated with skulls? Whatever the case was, Ryan couldn’t help but smile every time he looked at the little tattoo, knowing somewhere out there, someone else has received the same exact thing. The one person who could love Ryan unconditionally.

**

 

Ryan is twenty years old when he overhears a conversation at his local grocery store, the two girls ahead of him in line giggling as they show each other their soulmate tattoos. One of them has a little peach on her wrist, which, in hindsight, makes Ryan roll his eyes. They were in fucking _Georgia,_ for Christ’s sake. She could be _anyone’s_ soulmate for all he cared. What was so unique about a fucking peach?

The other girl, however, tugs the collar of her sweatshirt down to reveal her tattoo, though Ryan cannot see it from where he stands. Her friend pulls a face at the tattoo, and comments, “A skull? What could that even _mean?”_

Ryan stiffens at her words, now craning his neck awkwardly to see if he could catch a small glimpse. Could it be her? He eventually clears his throat, hoping to make it sound as if he wasn’t listening in on their conversation, and the girls eventually turn around to look at him.

The thing is, the girl is pretty. She is definitely the type of girl Ryan could see himself falling in love with, having a life with, but as their eyes meet, he feels _nothing._ There isn’t a sense of ‘you are the girl of my dreams’ or even the calm sense of comfort everyone else has described to be feeling when they meet their soulmate. Instead he is just left with empty.

“Sorry,” he apologizes, and the girls turn back to the front. Ryan tries to ignore the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

**

Ryan moves to Los Santos when he’s twenty-four, and college wasn’t at all what it was supposed to be. He figured he could make it, could really push himself towards a degree a pursue a career that could eventually lead him to his soulmate. A skull must have meant something medical and saving lives was a thing that would make his parents proud. In the end he ended with debt that would take forever to repay and no way to even repay.

He has an old friend in Los Santos who offers him a brand-new start and having nothing to lose he decides to take it.

There was a time where Ryan thought Jack could be his soulmate, and he certainly wouldn’t have minded it. Jack was gorgeous, she refused to back down from any challenge placed in front of her and she was always making Ryan laugh. It was only when Jack revealed her tattoo, a little bullet on her ankle, that Ryan realized that while Jack wasn’t his soulmate, she _belonged_ in his life.

Life in Los Santos is something his parents wouldn’t have wanted for him, and Ryan knows this. As he barrels into the convenience store with a pistol in hand and a mask over his face, he damn sure knows his parents wouldn’t want this for him. Jack is beside him, her own pistol in hand as she shouts demands towards the cashier, and Ryan threatens the few people scattered about the area as they cower.

His eyes catch a Halloween mask near one of the hostages, a black skull staring back at him. He decides maybe, if he and Jack were to continue with this, maybe something other than a ski mask to cover his face would be a good idea.

(Every robbery they pull off makes his tattoo tingle and he wonders if it means his soulmate is disappointed in him. He can’t bring himself to care.)

**

He’s twenty-nine when he believes he’s met them. He’s joined a crew that has started really making a ruckus around Los Santos, with Jack at his side and her soulmate at the helm of it all. Part of him was hurt when they met Geoff during one of their robberies, an exact replica of Jack’s bullet on one of his fingers, because he feels as though he’s losing her.

Then Geoff brings along another person, one who doesn’t have a soulmate tattoo at all, and Ryan believes he’s in love. They don’t have a tattoo yet, don’t really show a desire to have one. He’s gorgeous, nice, and he laughs at every joke Ryan cracks, even if Geoff and Jack groan at them. They meld well together, and Geoff even comments that the two of them are a force to be reckoned with in the crew.

When he wakes up with him one morning in his bed, nuzzling Ryan’s neck in his sleep, Ryan thinks ‘this is what I’ve been missing out on.’

They start dating after that, they begin sharing a room in Geoff’s penthouse, and they endure the teasing from Geoff and Jack about their obnoxiousness. For the first time, Ryan finally has someone to hold and love, and doesn’t make him question if the universe really was just fucking with him these past few years.

However, there are times where the connection isn’t there, and his mind wanders back to the girl all those years ago in the grocery store, and he realizes it’s the same feeling as before.

He doesn’t give up, though.

**

They add more to the crew, really make a name for themselves within Los Santos. They are feared by the citizens, Ryan especially as he trades in his plastic skull mask for a more authentic one. He decorates his face in face paint, grows his hair out until he can pull it back into a ponytail. He’s thirty-one now, going by the named Vagabond, and his kill count continues to rise with every passing day.

He has his boyfriend at his side through it all, the two of them a force to be reckoned with in every heist. He tries not to act sour when he sees the cooperation between Geoff and Jack, both reading each other’s mind and working seamlessly together. Gavin and Michael finish each other’s sentences effortlessly, encourage each other to do the stupidest things that, occasionally, give incredible results.

Ryan can see the couples within the crew look at each other with so much love in their eyes, their matching tattoos on display, and his heart crumbles a little bit.

He loves his boyfriend, he loves him so much, but deep down he knows they are not meant to be together, knows that the universe has someone else out there for both. That’s the painful part of it all.

He looks at his friends and he sees them looking at each other with love in their eyes and they never seem bored, but he also sees their matching tattoos and he knows it’s because they’re meant to be.

**

He’s thirty-four when his boyfriend decides that he’s leaving the crew. He gathers the entire crew in the living room of Geoff’s penthouse to announce that he’s pursuing another crew the town over, that they have more opportunities for him there and that’s he’s grown bored of Los Santos. Everyone else in the crew is happy for him, or at least they put on a good show of being happy for him.

Ryan wants to be happy for him, but he can’t bring himself to be when he catches a glimpse of his former lover’s wrist and notices a sunflower tattooed there. It wasn’t there a few days prior, and Ryan knows that no tattoo artist could have done it.

Ryan wants to tell him that tattoos mean nothing, that the universe simply doesn’t give a flying fuck about soulmates and, just wants to see people suffer. He only stops when he thinks of the rest of the crew, their happiness, and realizes that while he’s given up finding his soulmate long ago, he can’t hold someone back from finding theirs.

He lets his lover go and tells the others he’s going out for the night. They don’t bother to stop him, and Jack doesn’t question it when Ryan comes home the next morning with blood staining his jeans and his eyes bloodshot.

**

Ryan is thirty-six when Geoff introduces him to their newest crew member. He’s a shorter guy, a bit of an eyesore with his choice of outfits but looking at him brings a sensation to Ryan’s body that he’s never felt before, and he can’t ignore it.

He can’t even decide what draws him to this new crew member. Maybe the ridiculous combination of purple and orange works as a fucked-up beacon of sorts, because shortly after Geoff has introduced him to the rest of the crew, Ryan is the one to approach him in his newly claimed bedroom.

“Vagabond,” the new guy says, greeting him at the doorway. “It’s an honor to be in a crew with Los Santos’ most feared criminal.”

Ryan grins at that, having grown to like the title the LSPD has given him. He liked being feared, liked that he was practically untouchable. He’s glad the new guy is aware of it. “Hope I don’t offend you, but I don’t believe I’ve heard of Rimmy Tim before.”

“Real name is Jeremy,” the new guy responds with a laugh, removing his suit jacket and folding it into his dresser. He’s now wearing a light grey tank top, arms on display for Ryan to admire as he continues to unpack and make himself at home. “I doubt Vagabond is your real name, yeah?”

Ryan was going to respond with something witty, continuing the playful banter between the two of them, but his eyes have caught the tattoo on Jeremy’s shoulder, making his breath catch in his throat. Jeremy looks confused, looking at his shoulder as Ryan reaches forward and touches the inked skin with trembling fingers.

It’s a skull, a perfect copy of Ryan’s.

“Are you okay?” Jeremy asks him, looking at Ryan with confusion and bit of fear in his eyes. Ryan doesn’t respond with words, instead pulling up the sleeve of his jacket and showing Jeremy his own skull, the one that has tormented him for so, so long.

“ _Oh.”_

There’re a thousand thoughts going through Ryan’s head, a mess of things to say and what the appropriate action was to take towards finally finding his soulmate. His heart is full, he feels relaxed, and the feeling is completely indescribable.

“Ryan,” he says aloud, his name feeling foreign on his tongue. It’s ben so long since he’s said his real name, too long. “My real name is Ryan.”

Ryan has killed men for doing what Jeremy does next. The smaller man lunges forward, holding Ryan close to him and sighing deeply into Ryan’s shoulder as he whispers, “Fuck, it’s _you.”_

It’s been so long, _too_ long, since someone has held Ryan in their arms. He wraps his arms around Jeremy without a moment’s hesitation, and grins into Jeremy’s scalp and whispers, “Took you long enough.”

**

Ryan’s thirty-eight and he’s in the most feared crew Los Santos has ever seen. His name is whispered in fear throughout the city streets, and he could easily kill someone without less than a second thought.

He’s thirty-eight, and after every heist he gets to come back to the penthouse and kiss his soulmate, dress each other’s wounds as they laugh about the trouble they’ve stirred across their city. He gets to look at the skull on Jeremy’s shoulder, the identical one on his own wrist, and finally, _finally,_ believe in soulmates again.

**Author's Note:**

> don't be afraid to leave a comment or kudos!! you can also talk to me on tumblr at cherryraindrops :)


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